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OPINION

Thursday letters

As a resident of Leon County all my life (70 years), I am proud of Rocky Hanna for standing up against government waste in our school system. Jackie Pons complains about limited resources, yet he appears to be OK with circumventing the process for competitive bidding, which could result in higher costs and wasteful spending. This is an important issue.

ROBERT C. ASHBURN

rcaa1944@aol.com

No more light pollution

The night sky is polluted enough already to the point it makes stargazing difficult on a clear night. Please don’t add to the pollution by shining more light up into the sky. See the website darksky.org on how we can preserve our night sky.

JACK MCLEOD

A university conflict

The shaping of a Jameis Winston begins long before he gets to college. A talented football player like Winston begins to sense, and often flaunts, his uniqueness by the time he is 14 years old in high school. When serious recruitment by colleges with all the allurements and promises begins, many character flaws and peccadilloes have already been forgiven or overlooked, and the lad has reason to believe his athletic skills exempt him from merely socially acceptable conduct.

Where big-time college football is supported by a university, as it is at Florida State and dozens of other colleges, the multimillion-dollar coaching staffs have their own contracts dependent on the team’s success, and they are therefore intrinsically linked to the performance of any one of their star players. Benching or expelling for off-field misbehavior is not an option, and the athlete, the coaches and the university all ultimately suffer from the hypocrisy of the permanent pardon.

Notoriety and fame are not the same. The conflict of interest between what a university stands for, and what it must accept to have a winning team, is not new. Resolution lies in separation between the two.